Menu

News

It makes 550 horsepower and pumps 9 gallons every second.

Who wouldn’t want a supercharged Jaguar V8 under the hood, sending 550 horsepower to the wheels? That would be the person who needs such power just to make his freaking fuel pump work. Friends, if ever there was a statement to encapsulate just how awesome it is right now to be a fan of epic automotive performance, this is it.

Of course, this begs the real question: What kind of car needs a 550-horsepower fuel pump? That would be the Bloodhound SSC, which will use an EJ200 turbofan jet engine borrowed from the Eurofighter Typhoon as its primary power source in a world-record speed attempt later this year. The Jag V8 doesn’t feed the jet, however; it drives an oxidizer pump that will send 211.3 gallons of high-test peroxide to the car’s second engine – a custom-designed hybrid rocket – emptying the tank in about 20 seconds. For those too shell-shocked to do the math, that works out to about 9 gallons per second.

This is all for the pursuit of a new land-speed record, but it’s more than just that. The current record is a supersonic 763.035 miles per hour, set in October 1997 by the same team working now to break it. Much attention has been given to the Bloodhound SSC effort since this new endeavor was launched in 2008, because the target speed is an even 1,000 miles per hour. That wouldn’t just be a new land-speed record by far – it would also be a new low-altitude speed record for aircraft. So yeah, such things aren’t accomplished without all kinds of research, aerodynamic wizardry, and lots of power.

It also takes lots of money, which ran dry after the Bloodhound SSC’s official debut back in 2015. For a while it seemed the speed run might be lost to funding, but a fresh infusion of cash from Chinese automaker Geely last September put the team on-track for an October 2017 attempt – 20 years after setting the current record. That effort will only target 800 mph, which would still be a new record but obviously falls short of the ultimate goal. Presuming the pass is solid with no glaring issues or catastrophic failures, the Bloodhound SSC team will go for a 1,000-mph run at a later date.

Should that attempt eventually take place, the car will accelerate from a dead stop to 1,000 mph in 55 seconds. The custom-fabricated aluminium wheels will spin at 10,000 rpm as the car covers 450 yards a second – faster than a bullet fired from most handguns. Yeah . . . there’s never been a better time to be a horsepower junkie.

There has been a lot of interest in the original XJ-S of late, and through John Bleasdale’s XJ-SC Facebook page, also the delectable Cabriolet.

We have discussed the earliest XJ-Ss, the first two RHD examples surviving in Australia – one original and two being turned into a very famous and significant GT racer.

Well the chances are you haven’t seen this shot of chassis #2!

The place is Bob Jane’s Adelaide International Raceway, and the time is about 1983.

Mark Trenoweth had recently bought the car from builder/racer John McCormack, when this huge pile-up occurred with Mark driving.

The XJ-S is obvious but the car in the air belongs to the brilliant Jim Richards, while the Porsche facing backwards is driven by Australian F1 World Champion Alan Jones. The racer on the outside at the front closest to the fence is a Chev Monza driven by the legendary Peter Brock.

And also for John Bleasdale – I don’t know if he has this car logged, but it was seen in Jaguar Magazine when new and I believe was loaned by Melbourne Jaguar dealer Kellow Falkiner – but was a Jaguar Rover Australia Press Car.

Those of you who are regulars to Jaguar Magazine may well be familiar with John Bleasdale in England. He is dedicated to Jaguar’s Supercar models and the XJ-SC – or Cabriolet.

If you are interested in those models and don’t know John, you will find him on Facebook and other social media platforms.

So for John, here is an older image of a model he may or may not have on his Register, plus a shot of Richard Hassan (ex-Jaguar Student Apprentice and son of the legendary Walter Hassan) with the factory ‘Pace Car’ when we all went to Le Mans in I think 1989.

Jaguar loaned him that historic car, but since then I believe the Trust has sold it.

The final shots also show an XJ-S, the second XJ-S racer built by Mark Trenoweth, but which he sold to Mike Roddy. Yes, that is Mike and a very young Jordan with the car they used as a template for their brilliant black and silver V12 racer.

You may never have seen this one, but it has to be one of the most beautiful XJ-Ss ever seen.

Arthur Whittaker joined William Lyons and William Walmsley in their new Swallow Sidecar business at Blackpool as a salesman when he was 17. His contribution to Jaguar may be mostly forgotten by many – but not his granddaughters.

A classic 1948 Jaguar sports saloon, first owned by Arthur Whittaker, the Deputy Chairman of Jaguar Cars, has been re-united with his family 67 years after he parted with it.

In the older shot here Arthur is on the far left at the first Jaguar plant at Foleshill in Coventry. Queensland businessman and Mayor of Brisbane John Beals Chandler is in the centre being delivered his early MkVII and on the right is fellow Jaguar Director Ben Mason.

During Historics at Brooklands classic car auction in Surrey on Saturday, 4th March, Whittaker’s four granddaughters – Lucy, Sally, Sarah and Charlotte – who discovered the car’s impending sale purely by chance a fortnight earlier – fought off rival bidders to make it their own, settling on £70,000 for the jet black classic.

It will return to the eldest granddaughter Lucy’s family home in Kenilworth, just miles from the former Jaguar factory in Brown’s Lane, Coventry where it was originally manufactured 69 years ago.

“Once we discovered grandad’s Jaguar was for sale, we just had to go and see it”, said Sally. “We had no intention of buying it, but sitting in it before the sale brought back so many fond memories of family outings in his cars that we decided we just had to bid for it,” she continued.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, the UK’s largest car manufacturer, today announced it is beginning construction work on a £200 million redevelopment of its design and engineering centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

The expansion represents the first major construction project at one of the company’s non-manufacturing sites in over a decade. The development is intended to become one of the world’s foremost automotive product, engineering and design sites – fitting for a company with ambitious plans for continued global growth.

Chris Elliott, Property Programmes Director for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “The new design and engineering centre is a testament both to Jaguar Land Rover’s British heritage of innovation and its compelling vision for future vehicle technology. The new space will centralise our design, product engineering and purchasing functions in an original and modern environment, as well as creating additional capacity for the future.”

Jaguar Land Rover worked with leading architectural practice Bennetts Associates to design the scheme and has engaged Laing O’Rourke as its construction partner. Laing O’Rourke will develop the site to create a unique landscaped campus comprising new offices and Jaguar and Land Rover design centres.

In recent years Jaguar Land Rover has invested heavily in its UK vehicle manufacturing facilities at Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull to support the introduction of all-new vehicles such as the Jaguar XE, XF and F-PACE, Range Rover Evoque Convertible and Land Rover Discovery Sport. It has also made significant progress in building its international manufacturing presence over the last year, with a new manufacturing facility under construction in Slovakia and the opening of its plant in Brazil.

Over the past five years Jaguar Land Rover has employed more than 20,000 people, taking its workforce to more than 40,000. The company has invested more than £11 billion in new product creation and capital expenditure.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, the UK’s largest car manufacturer, has sealed an agreement with EDF Energy to buy all its electricity from renewable sources up to March 2020.

Jaguar Land Rover’s electricity supply is backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO), meaning a proportion of EDF Energy’s renewable energy is ring-fenced specifically for the company. The REGO scheme certifies the proportion of supply that comes from renewable generation – 100 per cent in Jaguar Land Rover’s case.

“Our future is low-carbon, clean and efficient. Our programme to reduce our burden on the National Grid doesn’t end here: we seek continual improvements, both in how we can reduce energy consumption further and how to minimise our carbon emissions.

“Our aim is to give our customers an assurance that the company’s electricity will come from renewable sources: those being in addition to the solar array at our Engine Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, one of the largest rooftop installations in Europe.”

Béatrice Bigois, Managing Director of Customers, EDF Energy, said:

“EDF Energy is pleased to announce that we will continue to supply Jaguar Land Rover with 100 per cent renewable electricity for the next three years.

“Jaguar Land Rover is a valued partner of EDF Energy – we share a strong focus on sustainability and are very proud to support Britain’s biggest car maker in achieving their low-carbon ambitions.”

Jaguar Land Rover’s renewables purchasing programme operates within a wider context of sustainability. The business’s latest annual Sustainability report, published today, shows the business achieved:

32% reduction in European fleet average tailpipe CO2 emissions (2015 compared to 2007)

More than 38% reduction in energy per vehicle produced, compared to 2007 (UK manufacturing)

Building on our research and development in electric, hybrid and conventional powertrains, we invested over £3billion in technology, design, engineering and manufacturing

In one year alone (to April 2016) we reclaimed more than 50,000 tonnes of press shop aluminium waste – enough to make around 200,000 Jaguar XE bodyshells. Giving all that aluminium another life has also prevented more than half a million tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.

New buildings designed to achieve the highest standards such as the Building Research Establishment’s BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard. BREEAM encourages designers and others to think about low carbon and act accordingly, minimising the energy demands created by a building – even before considering energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies.

John Bleasdale in the UK has been asking about very early surviving XJ-Ss, and mentioned on his brilliant Facebook page some very interesting examples.

They were RHD chassis #1, 2 and 31 and he asked for photos of #2.

So for John, here is another angle of #1 (the Lavender car), two which is the ex-John McCormack 1979 racer, owned and raced ever since by Mark Trenoweth in Brisbane – and also #12 which was the main Jaguar press and media car. It featured on the cover of Autocar in the world’s first press report on the XJ-S.

In 1987 Mark won Jaguar Car’s International Driver of the Year for his success in this car. It is seen here in two of its liveries – Unipart was the original. Mark has restored it perfect in Unipart colours and brings it out regularly. John McCormack is a good friend of his and assists with preparation and drives the car often too.

Also in Australia is #27, while #31 (manual) was pristine too the last time I saw it – and even had the original Dymotape instructions still on the body showing how to lock the bonnet!

Chassis #1 and #2 were brought to Australia by the same fellow, and McCormack got #2 to build his GT racer with genuine Jaguar V12 power.

For that he had to get FIA Homologation papers, which he did – and because the XJ-S now had them then, Tom Walkinshaw was able to qualify the XJ-S to race in Group A – even though the manual option had long gone out of production!